Farmers and union leaders are co-operating with supermarket bosses from Morrisons in a pursuit to resolve a crisis about the price of milk.
The unions say dairy farmers are struggling to stay in business because of a steep decline in the amount they are paid.
The meeting – which a Morrisons spokeswoman deemphasised as “a cup of tea and a chat between a couple of people” - comes on the back of a week-long protest by dairy farmers, which included a barricade of a Morrisons' distribution centre as well as several demonstrations outside supermarkets in which farmers paid for all the milk and gave it away for free.
David Handley, chairman at Farmers for Action, said last week: “All we want is a fair price, a living wage and be able to make a profit from our business, no different than any other corporate business, whether it be British retailing or the British foodservice industry.”
The NFU and other leading agricultural unions have cautioned that the farming industry is in a “state of emergency” and that many farms are on the brink of financial collapse because the price of milk has declined by 25% over the last year.
The farming unions held an emergency summit on Monday to discuss the crisis. Following the talks, they called on the government to introduce long-term contracts between farmers, distributors and supermarkets and to force retailers to label clearly whether their products are British or imported.
